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Last season was a pretty big deal for me as I got to create 4 unique game day posters. As an artist, a hockey player and a huge Devils fan this was amazing.
Well this season surpassed that.
A little while back I was contacted by the guy who does Keith Kinkaid's mask designs. He wanted to know if it would be possible to use some of my existing artwork for KK's Hockey Fights Cancer game specialty mask. When looking for some reference images on Google, the mask designer found one of my illustrations and presented his idea to KK and he liked it. So they tracked it back to me and pitched his idea to me. Long story short, everything went as planned and I was able arrange for a meet up after the HFC game vs the Canucks on Friday, Nov 24th game with KK through the Devs equipment manager and they were also nice enough to give me 2 free tickets to the (awesome) game. It was so surreal to see my work on an NHL goalie mask and a Devils one none the less. I get to say, me; my artwork adorned the mask of the New Jersey Devils goaltender in the National Hockey League. While he didn't play that game, I did get really close to the glass during warms ups and I could see it clear as day. It was also something special to see it on that mammoth sized jumbotron during warm ups too. After the game ended we had these special passes that told us to head to downstairs to a specific holding area. After waiting a few, we were escorted down into the bowels of the arena. While waiting we saw Hynes, Ward, Nasreddine, Clowe and Daneyko walking around and they were all very pleasant and all said hi (Dano was especially nice, I've met him before and he is always so thrilled to meet a fan) while waiting near the entrance to the locker room/tunnel to the rink area. Then sure enough Keith came out to chat (along with the equipment manager; Andrew Schmidt). We talked for about 10-15 minutes and it was wonderful; mostly about the helmet design and such. I asked why he wanted to use my illustration of Farva from the movie "Super Troopers" and he told me because his good friend's nickname is Farva and he wanted to honor him on the helmet. I suggested if in the future he ever wanted a new completely custom helmet that I would love to work with him/design it and handed him one of my business cards. He seemed to like the idea, so who knows, maybe it'll happen right? Never hurts to try I then got him to sign one of the game day posters I did from last season. And last but certainly not least, when he walked out he had one of sticks in hand, signed it and handed it to me as a thank you. I did not expect this at all. He was so appreciative that I let him use the imagery for his mask. He was so humble, polite, talkative, etc about the whole thing. It really was surreal. This doodlin' thing has it's benefits eh? Anyways, that's it. Just thought you guys might get a kick out of the story.

Thank you so much guys. This is my personal favorite I've done so far. I've got at least one more but retro stuff like this is my favorite and I'm not sure I'll be able to top it. Unfortunately and additionally, I'm straight up bad luck and my game day posters are now 0-3. I'll just show myself the door. :/

Working with them has actually been really fun and pretty much smooth sailing. They really haven't turned down a single concept I've submitted. They've only had minor tweaks and I think most for logistic/legal/PR reasons.
And having my art critiqued and ripped apart (online especially) is part of being an artist. You just have to be able take the good, bad and the ugly. If you let it get to you it can really hurt so I try and let it roll off me if it isn't constructive.
This particular design was a homage to the Dark Knight Rises poster with Bane walking away from the broken Batman mask and I had the quote from Bane, "Speak of the Devil and he shall appear" which I thought was SO fitting for a NJD poster. I think it worked so much better and really balanced out the overall design. I think they wanted to steer clear of that cause it might been too intense or perhaps too religious? But that's really only my opinion and I couldn't tell you for sure.

Thanks, I appreciate the thoughts. This stuff helps in the creative process. It was a bit of a rush job which is no one's fault but my own and I do think my previous one was definitely better. This one had a tag line at the top which I think really rounded out the design but in the end they asked me to remove it. I have one coming out next week that I think blows this one away. It's very different then anything I've done so far and I'm almost positive will be more popular even if the game/opponent/time of the year aren't ideal.

Yup, I'm the artist. I can't really get into too much detail about revisions but I can tell you that the NJ Devil HAS to look like the NJ Devil. You can't really stray from his look (like making him look angry and violent). Below is the original concept and then the revised concept.

From a design stand point, it really is a cheap shot to quickly alter a logo and claim it's superior then the original. You really never know how much work and research goes into creating that logo. I really don't mind this one but it's nothing spectacular either. I really dig the "V" for Vegas as the opening in the helmet. That being said, if your team name has the word "GOLDEN" in it, can you please make it GOLD colored and not a rustic, subdued, almost tan color? The colors are just kinda drab and when you think of Las Vegas, bright and vibrant colors come to mind. This reminds me of the "Vegas Gold" that Pittsburgh used for all those years that was a pale gold color (ironically enough, "Vegas Gold" was the actual name of the color) . Look how much more striking the Pens jerseys are now with the bright yellow, putting aside the actual design and nostalgia factor.
Anyways, wish they would brighten those colors up. Who knows, maybe it'll look more dynamic on the jersey they end up with.

When I originally started this thread I said that I couldn't share any work I'm doing for the poster campaign. Well it looks like I can, sort of. I thought you guys might like to see a quick concept that was ultimately passed on in favor of a different one. I won't go into the details of why the concept was passed over but just giving you a peek at what goes into the process. Enjoy...